Kohleneisenstein - Blackband Ironstone

Rock specimen of blackband ironstone. The Moat Pit, Roslin, 5 miles south-west of Dalkeith, Edinburgh, Scotland. Description: The sample is a grey-brown to black fine-grained organic-rich shale which contains pale fragments of fossil shell material and darker grey fragments of possible fossil fish. British Geological Survey Petrology Collection sample number EMC2704. A 'blackband ironstone' is a clayband ironstone that contains sufficient carbonaceous matter to be easily burnt and smelted to produce iron. They are of considerable historical significance to the industrial history of Central Scotland. The iron is in the form of soluble ferrous carbonate. Blackband ironstones are typically impersistent lenticular deposits usually less than 40 cm. thick and often associated with coal deposits. These occur throughout the Carboniferous sequences of the Scottish Midland Valley and were first used in the Carron Ironworks in 1759, where they were smelted with coal to produce pig-iron. The Carboniferous rocks at Roslin belong to the Lower Coal Measures and the underlying Namurian Passage Group sediments. The lithologies are generally sandstones with mudstones and occasional coal seams. Blackband ironstones were also of economic importance in the early years of the iron and steel industry in Scotland. These consist of iron carbonate with enough coaly material to make them virtually self-smelting. Clayband and blackband ironstones, which occur mainly in the Carboniferous Limestone Coal Group and the Coal Measures, were the principle source of ore during the rapid growth of the iron and steel industry in Scotland. Ironstone mining reached its maximum in the latter half of last century but declined rapidly in the early part of this century and has now ceased. Date taken: 01/12/2002 Photographer: McTaggart, F.I. Associate: T.S. Bain Copyright statement: NERC Additional information: EMC2704; Copy for noncommercial use permitted

Copyright:

British Geological Survey P521343

Contribution:

Collector - 2011-12-08 15:44:20

Count of picture requests:

1841 (seit 14. Feb. 2008)

License Information:

Usage for Mineralienatlas project only

Picture number:

1323359060

Assignments

blackband - Bildertabelle Gesteine

Geologisches Portrait/Lagerstätten/Torferze - in Lexikonseite

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